The Denver Post reports from Colorado. "Homebuilders spend countless hours dreaming up promotions. They offer deep discounts. They come up with giveaways. They take out radio, television, Internet and newspaper ads. They even hire people with iPods to stand along the side of the road, listening to tunes, dancing, waving and swinging these really stupid signs. Peter Kowalchuk, president of Qgenisys, said it's a shame many homebuilders are resorting to markdowns."

"'If they're going to offer me $30,000 now, they're going to offer me $40,000 later,' Kowalchuk said. 'For those who bought a month before the markdown, automatically their home values are depreciated.'"

The Arizona Daily Star. "Loft-style condominiums have sprung up in city centers across the country over the last decade. Eventually, developers in Tucson thought, 'Why not here?' They launched projects promising hundreds of new loft-like dwellings in Tucson's central core. But now, many remain vacant lots or gutted buildings."

"A few worry that Tucsonans may not be as eager to shell out luxury prices for living Downtown as they originally had thought."

"'What can and will consumers pay for?' wondered Steve Quinlan, chairman of Long Companies and an investor in two loft projects. 'If this was in Los Angeles or some other markets, then the answer would be easier,' he said. 'Affordability is a problem here.'"

"The loft building boom got under way in Phoenix in 2003 and 2004, said Scott Merrill, a real estate agent specializing in the downtown Phoenix market. But in Tucson, lofts didn't catch on until after the 2005 success of the Ice House Lofts."

"That put the beginning of Tucson's loft movement about at the peak of the market. Now that the market has slowed, demand for all types of housing, including Downtown-area lofts, has dropped, developers said."

"'I think that market is affected just like the rest of the real estate market,' said Steve Fenton, developer of the rental and condo project Academy Lofts. Fenton said he had no trouble finding renters for the 25 apartment units in the project, but could only sell six of 11 condominiums."

"Investors in one would-be loft project at 1047 N. Main Ave. are considering alternatives for the site because of the slowdown, said Jerry Yarborough, a real estate agent representing the New Jersey property owners."

"'It never really went anywhere,' Yarborough said about the investors' condo plans. 'We kind of missed the market.'"

"Some buyers interested in living Downtown might not be willing to pay an added premium, said Ross McCallister, a developer who was interested in the property for Bourn Partners yet-to-be-started The Post, 56 E. Congress St."

"'You don't have the whole package,' McCallister said, referring to dining and entertainment options. 'If you moved Downtown, what's going on to keep you down there?'"

The Arizona Republic. "Homeowners associations strapped by unpaid assessments related to the foreclosure-ridden real-estate market are mustering volunteer work crews, cutting maintenance jobs and scrimping on landscaping to save money."

"Phoenix, Chandler and Avondale are among Valley cities fielding calls for help from HOAs that previously turned only to their own boards of directors and management companies."

"'We are in new territory and need to find creative ways to work with everyone, whether that's stepping in with volunteerism or offering some training,' said Annie Alvarado, deputy director of Phoenix Neighborhood Services."

"Like miniature governments that depend on revenue to finance upkeep of common areas, community pools and private roads, HOA boards have to cut expenses or raise fees when revenues fall."

"'Unfortunately, in associations as in other parts of society, those who are able to pay are supporting those who can't,' said Brian Lincks, spokesman for City Property Management Inc. and an officer in the Arizona Association of Community Managers."

"His Phoenix-based company manages 260 HOAs in Maricopa County, encompassing about 80,000 homes. A few years ago, Lincks said, he usually carried 15 to 30 pending foreclosures on his books; today, there are about 1,800."

"'Everyone's revenues are off because of our housing crisis, and it's truly becoming a crisis,' he said."

The Review Journal from Nevada. "More than half of Las Vegas home sales in March were foreclosures or short sales, the president of Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales are down 7.9 percent from the same month a year ago. Inventory of homes listed for sale is at 22,763, up 6.9 percent from March 2007."

"Foreclosures and short sales, or homes sold for less than the mortgage owed, accounted for 773 sales in March, 52.3 percent of the total."

"While home prices are still declining, down 20.3 percent from a year ago, association President Patty Kelley said she doesn't expect them to go much lower because they're now selling for less than what it would cost to build that same home today."

"'It's starting to become a feeding frenzy,' Kelley said. 'The banks, the title and escrow companies are backed up. They laid off all their people and now they don't have the staff to handle the volume. We could get foreclosures and short sales out of the inventory. We have buyers coming back, but the banks can't act fast enough.'"

"Realtor Steve Hawks said he just received notice from the bank about a 2,480-square-foot home in Seven Hills going on the market for $334,000, compared with its 2002 sales price of $565,000."

"Distressed property sales are among the greatest opportunities in Las Vegas right now, Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis said. 'Sharks are swimming around the blood,' he said at an economic forum last week."

"The number of Clark County homes that entered preforeclosure status reached a record 6,152 in March, up 52 percent from February and more than double the 2,813 preforeclosures in the same month a year ago, Foreclosures.com reported."

"The county has 15,937 preforeclosures through the first quarter of the year, or 3.11 percent of its 512,253 households. Nevada leads the nation with 2.42 percent of its households, or 18,087 homes, in preforeclosure through March, followed by Arizona (1.96 percent), Florida (1.87 percent) and California (1.05 percent)."

"Real estate-owned, or bank-owned, homes in the county also rose substantially in March to 1,937, up from 1,640 the previous month and 1,763 in January. The three-month total is three times more than a year ago."

"Nicholas of CMPS Institute said the markets hit hardest by foreclosures are those with a high percentage of speculative investors who don't necessarily have as much as incentive as a primary resident to keep the home."

"'It's just an investment. They can just walk away from it,' he said. 'It's going to have to play out in places like Vegas and Florida. You can't bail out speculators. The problem is going to have to correct itself.'"

"Jeanette Young said she's now faced with possible foreclosure on her home after losing her job at National Alliance Title, which closed in December. President Bush's plan to give $600 tax rebates to help homeowners is a 'joke,' she said."

"'I don't know anyone that has a mortgage that is $600, unless they've had the same loan for 10-plus years,' she said. 'Mine is $2,200 plus all the other bills associated with a home. I do not see any relief in sight for those of us who have lost our jobs, cannot find comparable income and now cannot make our house payments.'"

The Las Vegas Sun from Nevada. "It doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to figure out that, at a time of year when business conventioneers and tourists head to Vegas for near-perfect weather, the city’s economic engine isn’t firing on all eight cylinders. The proof: Rooms are going for $75 at Harrah’s, $69 at Bally’s and just $199 at Wynn Las Vegas and the Venetian."

"Even one of the Strip’s most exclusive hotels, the Four Seasons, is offering a $50 credit on hotel services as well as rooms for less than $400 a night."

"Then there’s the blitz of promotions, from two-for-one meal and show offers to free cocktails and concierge services. Even the just-opened Palazzo is offering a $20 food credit and a $25 gambling credit."

"Las Vegas has been harder hit than other destinations by the combined effect of the subprime mortgage crisis, rising gas prices and the broader economic slowdown, said Ray Snisky, president of one of the nation’s largest operators of travel charters and packaged tours."

"The company, which is stepping up special offers in vacations it packages for major airlines and big hotel companies such as MGM Mirage, has seen some Las Vegas rates drop by more than 20 percent from a year ago."

"'It’s been surprising to us because Las Vegas has always been considered recession-proof,' Snisky said."

"Gov. Jim Gibbons and state legislators cannot count on a quick recovery from the severe economic downturn that has left them scampering to find where to cut $898 million from Nevada's two-year budget."

"Economists and housing industry experts predict the state's flat economy won't turn around before the last half of 2009 and might not regain its usual robust growth for another three to five years. That means the state's top elected officials not only face decisions this week on how to make dramatic cuts, they're also likely to go into the legislative session next year with tax revenues no larger than today's."

"'Our state is going to be in a world of hurt,' said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. 'That reality is starting to sink in at my level. It is frightening.'"

"The time when politicians could campaign for more full-day kindergarten classes and expansion of state services is over, said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno."

"'It is not a rosy future,' he said. 'Remember, just six months ago people were saying Jim Gibbons was making things up when he started talking about budget cuts. Well, nobody is in denial anymore.'"

"Herzik said legislators are going to walk into the 2009 session with no ability to expand services unless they increase taxes at a time 'when people in the state are hurting.'"

"'This time it is affecting Nevadans,' he said. 'The housing slump, the foreclosures have hit Nevada worse than anywhere else. In the past, bad things happened to other people.'"

"'I am not sure yet we have hit bottom,' said Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, about the slump in the housing market. 'I do not see a return to the heyday (of 2004-06). Loans are harder to get. It will turn around. How long is it going to take? Maybe three years to five years.'"

"Herzik noted even cigarette and liquor sales are off during the current downturn. 'What we need is for people to start gambling, drinking and smoking,' said Herzik, not entirely in jest."

The Las Vegas Business Press from Nevada. "Corus Bankshares, a Chicago-based lender responsible for $360 million in Las Vegas condominium-project loans last year, now faces high financial risk from the market's dramatic downturn."

"The firm has bet almost exclusively on luxury condominiums, with a $4.34 billion loan portfolio at the end of 2007. Corus' fourth-quarter earnings were $1.9 million or 96 percent less than the previous year. As of Dec. 31, $286.6 million in condo loans were more than 90 days past due and had stopped accruing interest, representing a fourfold increase from the previous year."

"'Continued weakness in the housing and mortgage markets, combined with a general slowdown in the economy, has resulted in a significant decline in Corus' 2007 earnings,' Robert Glickman, the company's CEO, said in a statement. 'This is clearly the worst quarter we have seen in many, many years.'"

"'The market remains in the midst of a rebalancing from an overheated demand profile to a skeptical consumer perception,' said Brian Gordon, a principal with a Las Vegas-based financial consulting firm. 'We believe end-users will ultimately dictate demand within the luxury condo sector and normalized conditions will prevail over the next several years.'"

The LA Times on Nevada. "They blow up aging casinos in this town. Now, some are wondering what to do about yesterday's desert dream homes. Take the foreclosed million-dollar house realty agent Michael Antos recently showed. Please."

"Antos pointed out that the house was showing its age. After all, it was built in 2000. In Vegas, that makes it as dated as a coin-operated slot machine. 'Now you've gotta have at least 20 by 20 to sell something at this price,' Antos explained."

"About 1,000 houses are listed for sale in Las Vegas for $1 million or higher, more than 600 of them built since 2004. But unless they've been constructed in the last year or two, the properties are considered out-of-date, making them all that more difficult to sell, real estate agents say."

"'Once you get into the market over $2.5 million, a lot of people just prefer to build their own,' said veteran Las Vegas real estate broker Michelle Sterling."

"In 2000, 176 Las Vegas homes sold for more than $1 million, according to DataQuick. By 2006, that number multiplied nearly eightfold -- to 1,385 before ebbing to 1,219 last year. Along with being out-of-date, developer Tom McCormick says, a lot of the mansions built hastily during the boom were poorly designed."

"The housing slump has left Las Vegas strewn with empty houses, and at all price points. There are now more than 22,000 homes for sale here, 51% of them vacant, according to SalesTraq. That compares with perhaps 15% to 20% in Southern California, said John Burns, an Irvine real estate consultant."

"William Derentz bought a 5,400-square-foot home in Las Vegas for $2 million in 2004. He never moved in, since he planned to resell it in a year or two at a hoped-for profit of $1 million. But after the home languished on the market, Derentz threw in the towel in February and relocated his family from Mission Viejo to the house."

"He now hopes to sell it when the market recovers, even if that takes several years. Meanwhile, to make the property more competitive, he's spending $200,000 to fix up the backyard of the house, outfitting it with a pool and 'his-and-her' cabanas."

"'It's going to look like the Bellagio back there,' Derentz said. 'You've got to make it two cuts above.'"

The Reno Gazette Journal from Nevada. "For Brian Turley and other area repo men, business is booming. In the wake of the subprime mortgage debacle, more people are defaulting on car payments and repossession firms report their business has doubled or tripled in the past three years."

"'We're doing more business than ever; it's at least doubled,' said Karen Regan, office manager for a Reno vehicle recovery firm. 'About a year ago, before the foreclosure stories hit the news, we picked up a lot (of vehicles) in the Spanish Springs area. People were choosing between their homes or their cars.'"

"Two weeks ago, Justin Zane, co-owner of Zane Investigations of Reno, recovered two 2007 Corvettes, she said. Cars trundle into the firm's yard every day: Chevy Tahoes and Silverados, Honda Elements, tricked-out pickups and brand new Toyotas. Motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles also are recovered."

"'That's another choice, lose your toy or lose your car,' said Kristen Ithurduro, Zane's sister and partner. 'But a lot of these folks, we get their motorcycle, and then three months later, we're back for their car. It's a vicious cycle.'"

"Local repossession firms said the subprime crisis is responsible for the upswing, but the usual causes of financial instability are still in play. Divorce, rising fuel prices, an inability to repair a car even when a consumer can make the payments and people buying more expensive vehicles than they can afford are at the root of many repossessions."

"'People make bad choices,' Ithurduro said."